Execution vs. Coaching

[Bull-by-Marriage]

great post, great responses, BOTH coaches and players need to improve. I'm say give CSH 1 more year when he as Woulard. If we don't improve this yeat, and improve a shiteton next year then he needs to go. Right, wrong, or indiffetent the coach is ultimately to blame.

[Bull94]

For me, plain and simple, the problems on offense started the minute Holtz and Fitch got here and they remain today. They never understood the type of athletes they have on the team and most importantly, instead of trying to build the offense around what you have, they decided to change BJ to what they run.

If BJ were a senior during Holtz first year and Holtz only had to live with it for 1 year it wouldn't have been a problem.

Thinking about it now I think Holtz has now completely screwed himself big time. He wasn't brought here to turn a failing program around. He came in under unusual circumstances. If he only had to live with BJ for a year he could have started to mold the rest of the team around what he wanted to do, take his lumps with BJ for a year and then plug in his QB, let him develop for a year and in year 3 he would be on his way. Fans would have been grumbling, patient and understanding enough understanding the new QB just needed a year to develop.

The problem is he has tried to change BJ for 3 years to his system and impatience is growing while everything continues regress.

BJ was brought here to run the spread. Skip tried to mold him into whatever his and Fitch's system is (sorry, can't tell you what it is because it has changed 3 times in 3 years and I'm really not sure what it is they do).

It takes a long time to change from one offensive philosphy to another. It was RichRod's undoing at Michigan and Bill Callahan's problem at Nebraska.

Maybe they told Skip not to worry about it for 5 or 6 years. Don't worry that our fans will stop coming to the games. Don't worry about winning. Its ok that the football program will be laughed at and ridiculed on national TV. Just be a nice guy, don't slap anyone and you can take as long as you want.

excellent post.

now we have a senior laden team and no real option for next year. and people are expecting Woulard to come in next year and change things. what they don't realize is that the kid is a project. He's the same as BJ. strong arm, no pocket presence, accuracy issues, great runner only he has no college experience. He will be a 2 year starter in high school after this year. he had 14 TDs and 10 picks last year in his first year. Not gaudy numbers at all. yeah he won some skills competition. and jamarcus russel tested off the charts in the NFL combine. big deal.

if they don't adapt their offense to Woulard's strengths then we will have the same results. BTW QB isn't the only reason we lose games.

[usfgrad84]

At best, here is what you have to look forward to next year:

QB- either a true freshman or an unheralded, mostly inexperienced former walk on or inexperienced (provided BJ stays healthy) soph.

RB-Either a juco and/or shaw, Davis and Pierre. Let's see what Shaw does. At least he should get some experience this year. What he gives us is anyone's guess.

TE-let's hope Mcfarland and Price get some useful playing time because so far neither has been an integral part of the offense. I think they have more penalties on them than career catches. Hardly the kind of productivity to get excited about.

OL-i hope you like what you see because this is it minus Popek for next year. In all fairness, of course they should be bigger, stronger, more experienced with time together as a unit.

DL will be fine. Good experience. Talented depth.

LB-lose Lanaris and as far as I'm concerned our only playmaker on D in Barrington. Dede should be back, but the unit is losing a lot if you ask me. Hopefully the younger guys are getting good playing time and experience will pay off. However, I don't see the kind of guys we used to bring in like Mitchell, Nicholas, Mckenzie, Moffitt even Lattimore and Barrington that Leavitt was able to recruit. Guys that were so talented that they were a decided improvement over the upperclassmen and could move ahead of them as underclassmen. If we had that on the team then there wouldn't have been all the preseason stuff trying to move Barrington and talk of nickel packages to improve over Lanaris. At least Lattimore should be back.

DB- Safety we will be fine...CB, you lose Kayvon and Baker. I don't care how talented Bivins may be, a freshman will still have a learning curve and will take time. That would be fine if there was a really strong guy on the opposite side, but whoever that will be wasn't good enough to surpass Baker. That tells me a lot. Safety help will be essential.

And we lose Bonani. So who knows there.

Anyway, on paper, next year looks to be a rebuilding year. What the hell will we be rebuilding from though? At best, maybe a 7-5 record? A 6-6 record. At this point I don't see much better.

Oh yeah, my rant about the receivers. Right now here is my impression; we always said that we had good athletes playing QB. We needed a true QB. With the exception of Davis. We have the same thing at WR. Davis looks to be a true, natural WR. Maybe Dvario and Gonzalez will be too, but so far I see Mitchell and Hopkins as good, fast athletes at receiver. If you can get away with that and excel in any position it is at WR. However, just being fast or a good athlete doesn't necessarily create good receivers. That has been evident so far this year. Running proper routes to get first downs, not dropping the ball, reading and finding the open spaces on the d. Ability to use your body properly. Not getting knocked off your routes. These are all things that make a huge difference in key situations. We have seen these errors from Hopkins, Mitchell several times and even route running errors from Davis. Jury still out on Dunkley. We haven't seen enough of him. Like I said, this is the position where great athletes can make a difference, but I would take a true receiver like we had in Jessie Hester over a great pure athlete like Amarri Jackson any day of th week.

Let's hope we finish this year strong because I don't see a good team for at least 2 years after this and I have zero confidence in this staff to put the younger kids in a position to overcome the shortcomings of inexperience.

[hbryan]

For me, plain and simple, the problems on offense started the minute Holtz and Fitch got here and they remain today. They never understood the type of athletes they have on the team and most importantly, instead of trying to build the offense around what you have, they decided to change BJ to what they run.

If BJ were a senior during Holtz first year and Holtz only had to live with it for 1 year it wouldn't have been a problem.

Thinking about it now I think Holtz has now completely screwed himself big time. He wasn't brought here to turn a failing program around. He came in under unusual circumstances. If he only had to live with BJ for a year he could have started to mold the rest of the team around what he wanted to do, take his lumps with BJ for a year and then plug in his QB, let him develop for a year and in year 3 he would be on his way. Fans would have been grumbling, patient and understanding enough understanding the new QB just needed a year to develop.

The problem is he has tried to change BJ for 3 years to his system and impatience is growing while everything continues regress.

BJ was brought here to run the spread. Skip tried to mold him into whatever his and Fitch's system is (sorry, can't tell you what it is because it has changed 3 times in 3 years and I'm really not sure what it is they do).

It takes a long time to change from one offensive philosphy to another. It was RichRod's undoing at Michigan and Bill Callahan's problem at Nebraska.

Maybe they told Skip not to worry about it for 5 or 6 years. Don't worry that our fans will stop coming to the games. Don't worry about winning. Its ok that the football program will be laughed at and ridiculed on national TV. Just be a nice guy, don't slap anyone and you can take as long as you want.

excellent post.

now we have a senior laden team and no real option for next year. and people are expecting Woulard to come in next year and change things. what they don't realize is that the kid is a project. He's the same as BJ. strong arm, no pocket presence, accuracy issues, great runner only he has no college experience. He will be a 2 year starter in high school after this year. he had 14 TDs and 10 picks last year in his first year. Not gaudy numbers at all. yeah he won some skills competition. and jamarcus russel tested off the charts in the NFL combine. big deal.

if they don't adapt their offense to Woulard's strengths then we will have the same results. BTW QB isn't the only reason we lose games.

Well that may work for the offense but what about our defense, special teams, and all the other metrics that you measure coaching by? I think you combine all of those and it leads to only one logical conclusion...............Skip Holtz is not a BCS caliber coach and he has hired assistants that are just as woefully inept as he is. I can't view it any other way unless and until he turns this wreck completely around but where is the indication that he can actually do that.

[usfgrad84]

I have been keeping a running count on special teams errors. At least 6 already. I give a pass for the first game vs UTC.

Defense is scaring me. We have had a hard time stopping anything up the middle in all 3 games and we have given up about 150 yards to 3 runners already. Our 2nd worst defensive performance (yardage wise) in one game and almost 500 yards in another. Not an auspicious start to Cosh's defense.